News
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Professor Tom Devine knighted in Queens Birthday Honours
14 Jun 2014
Congratulations to agency author Tom Devine who is knighted in today’s Birthday Honours for services to Scottish history. He has held various chairs at Edinburgh University since 2005 and is the author of over thirty books including the best-selling trilogy The Scottish Nation: 1700-2000 , Scotland’s Empire, 1600-1815 and Scotland’s Empire: The Origins of the Global Diaspora. Devine has won all three major prizes for Scottish historical research, been a Trustee of the National Museums of Scotland and a Member of Council of the British Academy.
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Patrick Dillon - How We Work Together
14 Jun 2014
Patrick Dillon is a novelist, historian and architect whose books range from histories of Britain and world buildings for children to accounts of the 1688 Revolution and eighteenth-century gin craze.
My writing career has been unusually varied, ranging from serious history for adults, through children’s writing to fiction. Andrew hasn’t only been able to able to achieve excellent deals for all these books. He’s offered brilliant advice in choosing and shaping proposals. The starting point is clarity about what a book’s trying to achieve, whatever its genre. Andrew is invaluable in those early conversations. Who’s the book for? What’s distinctive about it? He brings clear thinking to the discussion, along with marketing nous and unrivalled knowledge of the trade. There’s no point expending time on an idea that’s unlikely to take off.
The same clear thinking helps shape the proposal. Publishers receive dozens of pitches, and it’s essential that what we make it clear what the book’s about, where the market is, and why people will want to read it. Andrew achieves his extraordinary hit-rate because he makes sure every proposal does the idea justice. If that means covering every base, it’s worth it.
Choosing where to send the proposal is very much one for Andrew. Success depends on his contacts, and his knowledge of each commissioning editor’s interest. When editors start to bite, it’s the agency that negotiates, and turns initial interest into firm offer and contract. It cuts in again when the book’s done. Publishers can’t always offer the marketing support a writer needs. Andrew has been brilliant in suggesting publicists and helping with contacts.
So Andrew is really part of a book’s life from start to finish. Long-term relationships between authors and publishing houses seem to belong to the past. For me, that continuity comes from the agency instead. Wherever my interest has shifted, Andrew has been ceaselessly encouraging. When an idea is being conceived, or a proposal shaped, in selling books and making deals, in helping when the process falters, and then giving my books the best chance in a highly competitive market – his support has been essential
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Carol Acton in the Irish Times
13 Jun 2014
Discovering an Irish nurse’s unique WWII diary A researcher’s chance find at London’s Imperial War Museum gives a frank insight into war by a feisty, honest young Irish woman
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Roger Crowley - How We Work Together
13 Jun 2014
Roger Crowley’s books include Constantinople: The Last Great Siege (sold in fourteen countries) , Empires of the Sea (sold in fifteen countries) and City of Fortune: How Venice won and lost a naval empire. His next book Lords of the Navigation: How the Portuguese launched the age of discovery and the first global empire will be published next year by Faber in the UK and Random House in the USA.
I have worked with Andrew for over ten years and four history books. Over this period the relationship has evolved in line with my writing career. At the outset, Andrew read my proposal, had his judgement checked with an experienced outside reader and took it on. This involved pitching it to a range of UK and US publishers, taking me on a series of meetings with interested publishers and conducting effective auctions.
Since then I have worked with the same UK publisher (though two different US ones) and the manuscript discussion tends to be direct with the relevant editor. Andrew pitches each new proposal to the publishers and works to improve the deals. He tries to dissuade me from ideas for books which he feels are unlikely to be sufficiently commercial or ones that deviate from the area of history in which I have built some reputation. His overall strategy has been to encourage me to develop a coherent profile (brand?) as a writer of history, though I’m not always inclined to listen. He purses his lips at the mention of writing a novel…
Andrew also works hard with sub-agents to squeeze every last opportunity for the books out of the translation market. It’s a good to see a little more money coming in from Korea or Brazil several years after the book was first published. He handles potential film and TV rights (we live in hope), suggests speaking engagements, passes on contacts and opportunities that are filtered through him and arranges occasional shared meetings with the UK publisher. From time to time I also like to have a face to face catch-up with him specifically to talk about the history and book market generally and potential future writing strategies.
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Peter Daughtrey interviewed on Capricorn Radio
13 Jun 2014
Peter Daughtrey’s interview with Capricorn Radio is now online. Peter is promoting his exciting new book which promises to reveal the true location of Atlantis.
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Deborah Crewe - How We Work Together
12 Jun 2014
Deborah Crewe’s recent ghosted memoirs range from senior political figures to a West Country vet and Essex Bad Girl. Here she explains what having an agent means to her.
What is it like having an agent?
Well, first of all it’s extremely glamorous. It’s worth having an agent just to be able to casually drop him into conversation. For example:
‘How do you find work?’
‘Well, sometimes my agent finds work for me.’
‘Wow, you have an agent!’
Second, it allows me to quote endlessly (to myself, under my breath) the funniest film ever, Tootsie.
George Fields: Where do you come off sending me your roommate’s play for you to star in? I’m your agent, not your mother! I’m not supposed to find plays for you to star in - I’m supposed to field offers! And that’s what I do!
Michael Dorsey: ‘Field offers?’ Who told you that, the Agent Fairy? That was a significant piece of work - I could’ve been terrific in that part.
George Fields: Michael, nobody’s gonna do that play.
Michael Dorsey: Why?
George Fields: Because it’s a downer, that’s why. Because nobody wants to produce a play about a couple that moved back to Love Canal.
Michael Dorsey: But that actually happened!
George Fields: WHO GIVES A SHIT? Nobody wants to pay twenty dollars to watch people living next to chemical waste! They can see that in New Jersey!
I’ve never yet known Andrew to shout ‘WHO GIVES A SHIT’. But he will tell me straight up when I bring him an idea that is like watching people living next to chemical waste. I hugely value this honesty. Like pulling off a plaster fast, it hurts a little, but it saves a lot of time.
Third, having an agent opens doors. Andrew is a brand. And his brand values, I think, are hard work, strong relationships, and quality writing. That means he makes me revise and re-revise my proposal until it is as good as it can be. It means he knows which editors are going to love my proposal. It means those editors tend to take the time to read it, because it comes from Andrew. Yes, Andrew handles the negotiations and the contract and the money, and that is fantastic because it would be fiddly and a bit awkward to do it myself. But that, for me, is the least of it.
What is it like having an agent? It is like having my own personal coach, clairvoyant, fixer, gamer, cheerleader. It’s like having a trusty guide through a strange and daunting landscape.
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Nessa Carey - How We Work Together
11 Jun 2014
Nessa Carey, author of two popular science books, The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk, discusses her relationshp with the agency.
Picture the scene. You already have a demanding full-time job and for some reason decide it would be a great idea to write a book as well. That’s the situation I created for myself, in one of those examples of being too delightfully ignorant of what I was taking on to understand how insane it was.
I just wanted to write a book on a subject about which I felt passionately, and which I felt hadn’t been covered by anyone else. I had no experience of “proper” publishing at all. My nearest brush in the past had been scientific papers, and the occasional seventy word paragraph for a wildlife magazine. Hardly an adequate preparation.
Having looked at a few agents’ websites I thought that Andrew’s looked the friendliest (and if I am honest, he also needed the fewest chapters in the first round) so I followed the instructions carefully and sent off my submission. I was delighted when he accepted me, and didn’t realise how fortunate I was to get an agent so quickly. I blithely assumed this must be how it always works. Where ignorance is bliss……..
I realised quickly how lucky I was to have this agent though. He led me very patiently through various re-writes in response to his readers’ comments and once we’d agreed on a final version Andrew lined up interviews with various publishers. I was delighted with the final deal. The publisher was just right for me. They were a small company, specialising in non-fiction, and able to give me a lot of help in really polishing the book. A US deal followed quickly.
I love that I don’t have to get involved in anything contractual, or financial negotiations. It’s all handled for me, so I just receive the offers and say yes or no. The same is true with publicity opportunities that are sent my way. Even the emails that remind me I haven’t done something are gentle enough that I am not paralysed with guilt on receiving them.
Three years on and again I decided it would be a great idea to write a book despite working full-time. Far fewer re-writes confirmed for me that my original decision of working with people who could help a first-time writer learn to do things well had really paid off.
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How We Work Together
10 Jun 2014
In the second in a daily series novelist and historian Nicholas Best writes of how he works with the agency.
Only bad authors are completely certain of their talent. Good ones know that they misfire occasionally, especially if they’re trying something different. The first of many publishing obstacles is to get your new idea or manuscript past Andrew. If you can do that, you can be reasonably sure that he will manage to sell it somewhere in the end.
The next task is to draft a business proposal in sales and marketing language. It’s the bit I hate the most. My first publisher was a wonderful old boy who had published George Orwell in his youth. He had no time for sales and marketing proposals. He acted on instinct and hunch. I have never had a better publisher.
Nowadays, unfortunately, corporate executives need to cover their backs. If a book flops, it has to be everyone’s fault, not just theirs. That means a business proposal carefully crafted under Andrew’s guidance, something that the suits can circulate and discuss at acquisition meetings before arriving at a committee decision. Hunch and instinct no longer count for much, which is why there have been no George Orwells recently.
If the corporates go for it, you need Andrew to negotiate the terms, unless you know what percentage to ask for in a back-end split. All too often, they won’t go for it because they can’t see enough profit to cover their overheads. In that case, you can go round them now and publish on Amazon instead. A greatly reduced price online means that you can shift a lot more ‘demand-weighted units’ (Amazon-speak for books) at a much higher royalty.
I have recently reissued several of my out-of-print books on Amazon with Andrew’s help. I have been in the Amazon Top 100 for both fiction and non-fiction. My novella Point Lenana, too short to be published conventionally, was Kindle Singles’ No 1 fiction promotion at the end of May. None of that would have happened if I had been trying to do it without an agent.
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Rachel Kelly interview in the Sunday Independent
10 Jun 2014
Rachel Kelly was interviewed last weekend in Ireland’s biggest newspaper, the Sunday Independent.
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How We Work Together
09 Jun 2014
Every relationship between an author and agent is different depending on the needs of the author and type of book. In the first of a series for the website, ghost writer and novelist Lynne Barrett-Lee describes how she works with the agency.
Lynne Barrett-Lee
Those that know me well will also know that I am not much of a sports fan; I’m been known to ask which football team is wearing which ‘outfit’, which will probably tell you all you need to know on that subject. But there is no denying that sportspeople do give great quote. So while it’s self-evident that ‘talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships’ I make no apology for quoting basketball legend Michael Jordan in pointing it out again.
It’s easy, as a writer, to feel you’re the proverbial lone wolf. (And, by extension, as ghostwriters, perhaps ones that howl at the moon, too). We blather on about being outsiders often enough, don’t we? We’re also frequently found whining about the solitary nature of our calling, and are often to be found milking the whole ‘I suffer for my art!’ line for everything it’s worth. (And, yes, that screamer is definitely staying put.)
The truth is, however, that once we make the key leap from being unpublished to published, we need to become team players almost by default. Though the world always loves a good came-out-of-nowhere-to-dash-off-a-bestseller story, experience has shown me it’s a long game and a considered one. That it’s almost always a combination of the factors mentioned above that makes for a sustainable career.
Which, for me, equals having both a brilliant, perceptive agent and, by extension (because a brilliant agent opens those all-important doors) finding oneself in the company of great editors. Those crucial elements - not forgetting the whole publishing team behind them - that will translate the talent bit into sufficient commercial success that you can keep doing the thing you love doing best.
In my case – and I am a ghostwriter these days, for the most part – that sense of teamwork is integral to my working life. In the first place, Andrew does the stuff that, being a flibberty-jibberty author-woman, I neither want, nor are able, to do myself. And I’m not just talking about finding his way round a twenty page publishing contract either.
Everyone knows that a good agent takes care of business, allowing us delicate flowers to avoid the stress of trying to quantify our worth, but in the six years Andrew has represented both me and some twenty three books, and counting, his input has been so much more diverse than that. He is a fresh pair of eyes, a mine of market information, a champion of our right to have reasonable expectations and a mover and shaker par excellence.
And though I’m not sure this constitutes ‘best practice’ for either of our circadian rhythms, he almost always responds to emails as soon as they’re sent, whatever-o’clock it might happen to be, seven days out of seven, and however much rambling, self-absorbed sturm and drang they might contain. Is there any greater quality an author would want in an agent? I doubt it.
